Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?

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Publisher's Summary

Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?

With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country's adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality - all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore, and Dubai have tried to re-create the "Israel effect", there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there's never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues.

What the Critics Say

"There is a great deal for America to learn from the very impressive Israeli Entrepreneurial model - beginning with a culture of leadership and risk management. Start-Up Nation is a playbook for every CEO who wants to develop the next generation of corporate leaders." (Tom Brokaw)"No one else, in my judgment, has written regularly about Israel in recent years with more clarity than Singer." (William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard)

I found this book very interesting and an easy listen. The authors use analysis and anecdote to show how and why Israel's startup culture has become a major success story. Israelis thrive on chaos, controversy and risk and are not afraid to fail. Unfortunately, I found one major drawback with the audiobook: Just about every Hebrew name is appallingly mispronounced. This is especially annoying since 90% of this book's content consists of naming people, places and companies. It seems strange that the publishers did not bother to have the audio track reviewed by a Hebrew-speaking editor. Despite this major failing, I did find the book worth the listening time.

A fascinating insightful audio book and a remarkable story of the entrepreneurial spirit of a people surrounded by enemies in a land with no natural resources, who produce more start up companies than any other nation. A great audio!

I truly enjoyed listening this wonderful book. Original point of view, I would have never come to these conclusions myself, but I agree now! I like that the author is just giving you information for consideration and building this case slowly but surely. I learned something new about life. It was definitely worthwhile to purchase this book.

Very interesting review of a great anomaly. The book is far from being objective, and overlooks some issues that would interfere with the theories, but even this way, it is very much worth listening to for the fact that are in there and the amazing story it unfolds. I think they also ignore the strong affect the Jewish religion and the way it is constructed had on the traits they mention, even though most of the country is secular.

The book has 16 chapters, it is not until chapter 7 that the authors stop focusing almost exclusively on extolling the virtues is the Israeli military.

Few books I have read had have so quickly been overtaken by events. As a non Israeli I struggle to see what is should take away from reading this book apart from 'you should be more Jewish in character'. A lot of the rest just seems like post hoc analysis of cherry picked Israeli successes.

One potential learning could be that immigration is good for growth, but it is hard to justify going through the whole book to synthesis this.

The authors (Senor and Singer) use stories on Israeli startups to develop hypotheses on why Israel has many more startups than countries much larger in size and population, even with their constant challenges of war, location and terrain. They argue that military service before college helps young Israelis develop skills, become more resilient and learn to focus on their missions, all of which are useful traits in entrepreneurs. The educational system has a strong emphasis on science and technology, led by Technion, producing many engineers, scientists and inventors. Many of the diaspora return to Israel after gaining experience in the US and other countries. The large number of immigrants also leads to more entrepreneurs. Immigrants are inherently risk takers and are not afraid to fail. Government policies act as facilitators, with specific examples from Shimon Peres and Netanyahu. The evolution of several Israeli startups is covered, including Shai Agassi of electric car company Better Place, Gavriel Iddan of endoscopy camera maker Given Imaging, ICQ instant messenger and others. Large global companies have also established key R&D operations in Israel, including Intel, Google, Cisco, Microsoft and eBay. This audiobook is highly recommended to listeners interested in entrepreneurship and Israeli business history. After listening, you'll better understand why the number of startups per capita in Israel is very high compared to other countries. Narrator performance was very good.

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